


Ironbark

by EurydicaeQuercus



Series: Is this what a saviour looks like? [8]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Not total recovery but getting there, Prosthesis, Recovery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-10
Updated: 2019-06-10
Packaged: 2020-04-24 05:47:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19167040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EurydicaeQuercus/pseuds/EurydicaeQuercus
Summary: No longer able to stand being without her forearm, Zaren attempts to remake it with Ironbark, while Arnumin watches on in concern.





	Ironbark

“Are you sure about this, Ren?” 

Arnumin’s anxious voice echoed behind her, bouncing off the imposing stone walls. Zaren frowned and took stock of the table once again. Ironbark, lyrium, bandages. Everything she needed. Only one thing left to do now. 

“Completely sure,” she said, and drank the vial of lyrium. 

Her magic had returned to some semblance of normalcy after her forearm had been removed, and she felt more in control than she had in almost three years, but for this she would need considerable power—more than she could muster at a moment’s notice. It wasn’t long before she could feel the magic burning through her veins, amplifying her natural abilities far past their normal limits. She had the ragged stump where her forearm used to be completely exposed—it still wasn’t fully healed. This was going to hurt. 

With careful precision, she lifted the ironbark from the table and held it up in front of her eyes, allowing herself to feel it, know it, let her magic flow through it in powerful waves. Once she knew every crease and crevice in the wood, she looked down at her arm. Deep breaths. All she had to do was stay calm and focus. 

She touched the ironbark to her wound, repressing any sign of pain that might show on her face as she allowed the magic to burn through her arm and through the wood, a path blazing through the both of them, connecting them together as her nerves reached out into the wood, shaping it, feeling for where flesh had once been and contorting the bark under its power. 

She heard Arnumin make a choking noise next to her and put a hand out to stop her rushing over to her. She needed to focus. She watched as the bark began to shift and change as it remained in contact with the wound. Slowly, painfully slowly, a shape began to form from the wood as it lengthened and elongated, her nerves feeling their way along the wood, the magic allowing them to put form to memory. Gradually, a hand began to form, then long, slender fingers; first just a skeletal outline, then a solid form as the wood snaked along the bones, forming muscles and sinew. 

Finally, the power began to fade, and the hand was complete. Zaren moved her arm up and down, stretching out her new, wooden fingers, testing their dexterity and strength. The connection between flesh and wood was smooth, but Zaren could already feel a dull ache in her chest as her mana adjusted to this new appendage, flowing through it, maintaining its shape. It was going to be painful when she needed to remove it. 

She finally dared to look up at Arnumin again. Her dark skin had taken on an almost grey-ish tone as she looked at Zaren’s hand with wide eyes, clearly disturbed by what had happened. 

“It’s alright—” said Zaren, feeling the need to reassure her, but she was cut off as Arnumin rushed over to her and pulled her into a fierce hug. 

She returned it, holding her tightly, almost as if to reassure her she was still there. Eventually, Arnumin released her, still keeping one hand on her waist as she moved to examine Zaren’s new arm. She cautiously ran her fingers over it, clearly not quite sure that what she was seeing was real. 

“It’s amazing,” she said, her voice quiet and trembling. “Does it feel different?”

“Yes,” said Zaren, still acutely aware of the magical cost involved in maintaining the limb, already beginning to feel slightly fatigued. But perhaps that was just general stress. She’d had a very stressful past few days. 

She stretched out her arm again, noticing how it felt to move it. It was lighter than her normal arm. Stronger too, but also...duller. She couldn’t feel things as well as before, she noticed as Arnumin let her hand rest on her wrist. Everything felt oddly numb. That was something she’d need to get used to. 

She looked at Arnumin’s face. There were dark shadows under her eyes, and her cheeks looked a little hollow, but there was a smile on her face now as she looked at Zaren’s new hand with awe. And Zaren felt a smile rising unbidden to her lips. They were together, and it was going to be okay.  



End file.
